U.S. Suspects Pakistan Link in Attack
By MATTHEW ROSENBERG And SIOBHAN GORMAN(Twsj)
WASHINGTON—U.S. officials say they are looking for evidence that directly links elements of Pakistan's powerful spy agency to this week's assault on the U.S. Embassy and coalition headquarters in Kabul, a sign of just how rancorous relations have become between the two allies in the fight against al Qaeda and the Taliban.
The American suspicions are being partly fueled by growing concerns that deteriorating bilateral relations, and the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, may be pushing elements of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence spy agency to more closely embrace the Haqqani network, the Taliban faction blamed for this week's violence and a spate of attacks in and around Kabul.
Neither the ISI nor the Pakistani military, of which the spy agency is part, immediately responded to the U.S. suspicions. Pakistani government officials dismissed the suspicions as insulting and unfair.
Enlarge Image
Reuters
Afghan policemen inspect a building in Kabul this week after a battle with insurgents near the U.S. Embassy.
Top U.S. officials, including Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, have already blamed the violence in Kabul on the Haqqani network, an Afghan insurgent faction whose history is intertwined with the ISI. The Pakistani spy agency has aided Haqqani network attacks in Kabul in past years, officials say.
The U.S. has warned the Pakistanis of stronger action if the group wasn't reined in.
Afghan officials say mobile phones found on the slain attackers in this week's commando-style raid in Kabul indicate they were in contact with people from "outside Afghanistan"—a typical Afghan way of indirectly pointing to Pakistan. Taliban and allies have for a decade found refuge in the mountainous areas along the two countries' border.
Even so, U.S and Afghan officials have stopped short of publicly linking the attack to the ISI, as they did after past attacks in Kabul, such as the 2008 and 2009 bombings of the Indian Embassy in Kabul.
In those and other cases, U.S. officials said that communications intercepts and other intelligence directly linked the ISI to the attacks. Yet it took months to reach that conclusion and publicize it.
What is different this time is the speed with which some U.S. officials publicly said they were exploring ISI links, a sign of the growing frustration of U.S. officials who in recent months have become more public in their finger-pointing at Pakistan for its coordination with Islamist militant groups.
The possibility of ISI involvement was already being considered within hours of the attack's conclusion when President Barack Obama's National Security Council met Wednesday, said a U.S. official.
A senior U.S. defense official said there is currently no "actionable intelligence" linking Pakistan's spy service to this week's attack. "But we're looking for it—closely," the defense official said shortly after the violence ended.
The official added that given the ISI's history of supporting and sheltering the Haqqanis, it was "almost reflexive" to see if the spy agency had any role in the latest Kabul violence.
That illustrates the deep vein of mistrust now running through the relationship between Washington and Islamabad.
"The level of patience has just gone out the window," said Seth Jones, a political scientist at the Rand Corp., who has spent much of the past two years working with the U.S. military in Afghanistan. "People aren't keeping it inside anymore and containing it in a circle that, for a while, was just private."
Pakistan, for its part, says the ISI long ago severed ties with the Haqqanis. Government officials in Islamabad bristled at the suggestion their country had any role in the attack or that its territory was used to orchestrate the violence.
A spokeswoman for Pakistan's Foreign Ministry, Tehmina Janjua, said in a statement Thursday that Mr. Panetta's remarks about the Haqqani network were "out of line with the cooperation that exists between the two countries in the war against terrorism."
U.S. officials acknowledge that in some areas the cooperation remains solid, such as the fight against al Qaeda. Despite criticism of the unilateral American raid that killed Osama bin Laden in May, Pakistan is still viewed by many in Washington as committed to that fight. Its aid was essential in the killings of a pair of senior al Qaeda leaders in recent weeks in Pakistan, the officials said.
What frustrates some Americans is that while Pakistan at times acts as an indispensable ally, it also hedges its bets by remaining close to militant groups long seen by Pakistan's national security establishment as effective tools of foreign policy.
Pakistan has used groups such as the Haqqanis, the Taliban and others to secure its interests in Afghanistan, officials say, and keep regional rival India, with a far larger conventional military, at bay.
This week's, attacks, however, targeted the U.S. The fighting started Tuesday afternoon when militants began firing rocket-propelled grenades at the heavily fortified U.S. Embassy, the headquarters of the U.S.-led coalition and other targets.
At least a half dozen RPGs landed inside the embassy; 11 Afghan civilians and five police were killed before the fighting ended Wednesday morning.
A direct attack on an American embassy "isn't something we can treat as business-as-usual," said the U.S. defense official. Even if no ISI link is found, the Pakistani relationship with the Haqqanis is "long past unacceptable," the official said.
Missteps by both the U.S. and Pakistan this year have led to a sharp deterioration in relations, which may also be prompting Islamabad to more closely embrace militant groups from which it has sought to publicly distance itself in recent years, according to U.S. officials and Mr. Jones of Rand.
"There's a question that goes beyond the Haqqanis—about whether there is an increased amount of support to a range of groups fighting in Afghanistan," said Mr. Jones, who is writing a book about al Qaeda. Among the other groups that ISI may seek to forge stronger relations in Afghanistan, he said, is Lashkar-e-Taiba, which was responsible for the 2008 commando-style attack in Mumbai.
Lashkar-e-Taiba was nurtured by Pakistan throughout the 1990s to fight Indian rule in the divided region of Kashmir, and U.S. and Western official believe it still maintains close links with elements of the ISI and Pakistani military.The wallstreetjournal
WASHINGTON—U.S. officials say they are looking for evidence that directly links elements of Pakistan's powerful spy agency to this week's assault on the U.S. Embassy and coalition headquarters in Kabul, a sign of just how rancorous relations have become between the two allies in the fight against al Qaeda and the Taliban.
The American suspicions are being partly fueled by growing concerns that deteriorating bilateral relations, and the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, may be pushing elements of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence spy agency to more closely embrace the Haqqani network, the Taliban faction blamed for this week's violence and a spate of attacks in and around Kabul.
Neither the ISI nor the Pakistani military, of which the spy agency is part, immediately responded to the U.S. suspicions. Pakistani government officials dismissed the suspicions as insulting and unfair.
Enlarge Image
Reuters
Afghan policemen inspect a building in Kabul this week after a battle with insurgents near the U.S. Embassy.
Top U.S. officials, including Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, have already blamed the violence in Kabul on the Haqqani network, an Afghan insurgent faction whose history is intertwined with the ISI. The Pakistani spy agency has aided Haqqani network attacks in Kabul in past years, officials say.
The U.S. has warned the Pakistanis of stronger action if the group wasn't reined in.
Afghan officials say mobile phones found on the slain attackers in this week's commando-style raid in Kabul indicate they were in contact with people from "outside Afghanistan"—a typical Afghan way of indirectly pointing to Pakistan. Taliban and allies have for a decade found refuge in the mountainous areas along the two countries' border.
Even so, U.S and Afghan officials have stopped short of publicly linking the attack to the ISI, as they did after past attacks in Kabul, such as the 2008 and 2009 bombings of the Indian Embassy in Kabul.
In those and other cases, U.S. officials said that communications intercepts and other intelligence directly linked the ISI to the attacks. Yet it took months to reach that conclusion and publicize it.
What is different this time is the speed with which some U.S. officials publicly said they were exploring ISI links, a sign of the growing frustration of U.S. officials who in recent months have become more public in their finger-pointing at Pakistan for its coordination with Islamist militant groups.
The possibility of ISI involvement was already being considered within hours of the attack's conclusion when President Barack Obama's National Security Council met Wednesday, said a U.S. official.
A senior U.S. defense official said there is currently no "actionable intelligence" linking Pakistan's spy service to this week's attack. "But we're looking for it—closely," the defense official said shortly after the violence ended.
The official added that given the ISI's history of supporting and sheltering the Haqqanis, it was "almost reflexive" to see if the spy agency had any role in the latest Kabul violence.
That illustrates the deep vein of mistrust now running through the relationship between Washington and Islamabad.
"The level of patience has just gone out the window," said Seth Jones, a political scientist at the Rand Corp., who has spent much of the past two years working with the U.S. military in Afghanistan. "People aren't keeping it inside anymore and containing it in a circle that, for a while, was just private."
Pakistan, for its part, says the ISI long ago severed ties with the Haqqanis. Government officials in Islamabad bristled at the suggestion their country had any role in the attack or that its territory was used to orchestrate the violence.
A spokeswoman for Pakistan's Foreign Ministry, Tehmina Janjua, said in a statement Thursday that Mr. Panetta's remarks about the Haqqani network were "out of line with the cooperation that exists between the two countries in the war against terrorism."
U.S. officials acknowledge that in some areas the cooperation remains solid, such as the fight against al Qaeda. Despite criticism of the unilateral American raid that killed Osama bin Laden in May, Pakistan is still viewed by many in Washington as committed to that fight. Its aid was essential in the killings of a pair of senior al Qaeda leaders in recent weeks in Pakistan, the officials said.
What frustrates some Americans is that while Pakistan at times acts as an indispensable ally, it also hedges its bets by remaining close to militant groups long seen by Pakistan's national security establishment as effective tools of foreign policy.
Pakistan has used groups such as the Haqqanis, the Taliban and others to secure its interests in Afghanistan, officials say, and keep regional rival India, with a far larger conventional military, at bay.
This week's, attacks, however, targeted the U.S. The fighting started Tuesday afternoon when militants began firing rocket-propelled grenades at the heavily fortified U.S. Embassy, the headquarters of the U.S.-led coalition and other targets.
At least a half dozen RPGs landed inside the embassy; 11 Afghan civilians and five police were killed before the fighting ended Wednesday morning.
A direct attack on an American embassy "isn't something we can treat as business-as-usual," said the U.S. defense official. Even if no ISI link is found, the Pakistani relationship with the Haqqanis is "long past unacceptable," the official said.
Missteps by both the U.S. and Pakistan this year have led to a sharp deterioration in relations, which may also be prompting Islamabad to more closely embrace militant groups from which it has sought to publicly distance itself in recent years, according to U.S. officials and Mr. Jones of Rand.
"There's a question that goes beyond the Haqqanis—about whether there is an increased amount of support to a range of groups fighting in Afghanistan," said Mr. Jones, who is writing a book about al Qaeda. Among the other groups that ISI may seek to forge stronger relations in Afghanistan, he said, is Lashkar-e-Taiba, which was responsible for the 2008 commando-style attack in Mumbai.
Lashkar-e-Taiba was nurtured by Pakistan throughout the 1990s to fight Indian rule in the divided region of Kashmir, and U.S. and Western official believe it still maintains close links with elements of the ISI and Pakistani military.The wallstreetjournal
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